Miscellaneous unorganized material/WSOC-TV
}} | homepage = www.wsoctv.com| }} WSOC-TV ("Channel 9") is the ABC affiliate in Charlotte, North Carolina. It is owned by Cox Enterprises. The station's studio is located at North Tryon and 23rd Streets, just north of Uptown Charlotte, and is shared with sister station WAXN-TV (channel 64). The transmitter is located just outside Charlotte's northeastern city limits, in the Newell-Hickory Grove area. WSOC-TV is carried on cable channel 4 on cable systems in Charlotte, Gastonia and Rock Hill and on channel 9 in most outlying areas. History WSOC-TV signed on on April 28, 1957.http://www.wsoctv.com/news/12833433/detail.html It was Charlotte's third television station, after WBTV and WAYS-TV, which broadcast on channel 36 from 1954 to 1955. WSOC was the second station on the VHF band, and is now Charlotte's second-oldest continuously operating station. It was originally owned by the Jones family along with WSOC radio (AM 1240, later on AM 930 and now WYFQ), and FM 103.7). WSOC-AM was Charlotte's second radio station, having signed on the air in 1929, seven years after WBT. Originally, Channel 9 was a primary NBC affiliate, and shared ABC programs with WBTV. Cox Communications of Atlanta bought WSOC radio and TV in 1959. Channel 36 returned to the air in 1964 as WCCB. WCCB moved to channel 18 in 1966, but it continued to be at a competitive disadvantage because many Charlotte-area homes did not yet have sets with UHF tuning capability. For the next three years, WSOC and WCCB split both NBC and ABC programming roughly equally; WBTV continued to air some ABC programs as well. WCCB aired programs from all three networks that the other two stations declined. In 1967, NBC, which has historically been very intolerant of local pre-emptions, told channel 9's management to start clearing all of NBC's programming as a condition of renewing its affiliation with the station. WSOC then dropped all remaining ABC programming and became a sole NBC affiliate, while WCCB became a full-time ABC affiliate with no NBC programming. By 1978 ABC had become the country's highest-rated network for the first time, and wanted a stronger outlet in Charlotte than WCCB. It quickly cut a deal with Cox to switch both WSOC-TV and Cox' flagship station, WSB-TV in Atlanta, to ABC affiliation. WSOC joined ABC on July 1, 1978. NBC was sent over to WRET (channel 36, now WCNC-TV), and WCCB became an independent station (it is now affiliated with Fox). The radio stations were sold off in the early 1990s; the AM station is now owned by Bible Broadcasting Network, and WSOC-FM by CBS Radio. In 1996, WSOC-TV entered into a joint sales agreement with WKAY-TV, channel 64. As part of the deal, WKAY moved its operations to WSOC-TV's studios and changed its calls to WAXN-TV. Cox bought WAXN outright in 2001. WSOC-TV was Charlotte's home of the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon from 1971 to 2001; the program now airs on WAXN. Digital television The station's digital signal is multiplexed: Newscasts Since the early 1970s, WSOC-TV has used the Eyewitness News moniker for its newscasts. However, its style is very similar to the Action News format at sister station WSB-TV. For many years, WSOC's news was a very distant second in the Charlotte market, behind the older WBTV. However, in 1982, it overtook WBTV for the lead at 11 PM, a lead it held for almost 25 years. It surpassed WBTV in most other time slots beginning in 1990, but lost the lead at noon to WBTV in 1994. It has been able to dominate the early news timeslots largely because of the presence of Oprah as a lead-in; the show has aired on channel 9 since its national premiere in 1986. In the February 2008 ratings, WSOC led in every time slot; WCNC is consistently a distant third. http://www.charlotte.com/326/story/526542.html Since 1994, WSOC-TV has produced a 10:00pm newscast, which now airs on its sister station, WAXN-TV. Its 10:00 news aired on WCCB until that station launched its own local news operation in 2000. In November 2007, WAXN's newscast was second in the 10 PM news ratings, behind WCCB and ahead of the WBTV-produced newscast on WJZY. http://www.charlotte.com/326/story/386253.html Bill Walker was WSOC's main anchor from 1971 until his retirement in 2005, longer than anyone in Charlotte television history. WSOC-TV started producing local high definition newscasts on April 22, 2007 http://www.wsoctv.com/news/12833433/detail.html. That made WSOC the first television station (and currently the only one) in Charlotte and the second station in North Carolina (behind Raleigh's WRAL-TV) to do newscasts in HD. Current Personalities News *'Mark Becker', General Assignment Reporter *'Jamie Bowers', Traffic Reporter *'Jim Bradley', General Assignment Reporter *'Kim Brattain', 5:30PM and 10PM Anchor/Reporter *'Erica Bryant', Daybreak and Midday Anchor/Reporter *'Tim Caputo', General Assignment Reporter *'Vince Coakley', 5PM, 6PM, and 11PM Anchor/Reporter *'Debi Faubion', 5PM, 6PM, and 11PM Anchor/Reporter *'Dave Faherty', General Assignment Reporter *'Don Griffin', Consumer and Business Reporter *'Ashlea Kosikowski', General Assignment Reporter *'Ken Lemon', General Assignment Reporter *'Kara Lusk', Daybreak Reporter *'Brigida Mack', Sunday Morning and Midday Anchor/Reporter *'Ron Magnuson', General Assignment Reporter *'Blair Miller', 5:30PM and 10PM Anchor/Reporter *'Ann Marie O'Keefe', Saturday Morning and Midday Anchor/Reporter *'Rene Romo', General Assignment Reporter *'Brian Stickley', Traffic Reporter *'Greg Suskin', South Carolina Bureau Reporter *'Ben Thompson', Weekend 6PM, 10PM, and 11PM Anchor/Reporter *'Susan Tran', Weekend 6PM, 10PM, and 11PM Anchor/Reporter *'Scott Wickersham', Daybreak and Midday Anchor/Reporter Severe Weather Center 9 *'John Ahrens', Weekend Evening Meteorologist (AMS Certified) *'Steve Udelson', Chief Meteorologist (AMS-CBM) *'Mark Watkins', Daybreak and Midday Meteorologist (AMS Certified) *'Keith Monday', Weekend Morning Meteorologist (AMS Certified) Sports *'Bill Voth', Sports Anchor/Reporter *'Tiffany Wright', Sports Anchor/Reporter *'Jarod Latch', Sports Anchor/Reporter Former Personalities *Diana Williams - reporter (1979-1982; now at WABC-TV in New York City) *Holly Bristow, General Assignment Reporter (2003-2006, now at WOFL) *Harold Johnson, Sports Director (1979-2006, retired) *Ray Boylan, Meteorologist (1986-1996, retired) *Terri Bennett, Meteorologist (1991-1996, at WCNC-TV Charlotte 1997-2007) *Steve Adamson, Meteorologist (1994-1996, now at WXIA-TV Atlanta) *Cullen Ferguson, Anchor/Reporter (1969-2005, retired) *Doreen Gentzler, Anchor/Reporter (1979-1983, now at WRC-TV Washington) *Bill Walker, Anchor/Reporter (1968-2005, retired) *Patty Pan, General Assignment Reporter (2002-2005, now at WAGA-TV Atlanta) *Tracey Neale, Anchor/Reporter (?-1994, last seen at WUSA-TV Washington) *Michelle Kosinski, Reporter (?-2001, now at NBC) *Rob Boisvert, Anchor/Reporter (?-?, now at News 14 Carolina) *Meg MacDonald, Anchor/Reporter (1983-1990, later at WCAU-TV Philadelphia and Inside Edition) *Cory Kessler, Sports Anchor/Reporter (?-?, now at Fox Sports Net South) *Jeff Sonier, Reporter (1980's-1990's, now at WCNC-TV) *Joe Johns, Reporter (?-?, later at WRC-TV and NBC, now at CNN) *Jeremy Reiner, Meteorologist (1999-2006, now at WHDH-TV) *Bob Pearse, Sports Anchor (1978-1980, now at Cable News 2, Rock Hill, SC) *Brett McMillan, Sports Anchor (1980's, now at WBT) *John Humphries, Sports Reporter/Anchor (1980's, now at WYFF) *Melonie Holt, Anchor/Reporter (1996-2004, now at WFTV) *John Cochran, Reporter (1960's, later at NBC, now at ABC) *Doug Mayes, Anchor (1981-1989, retired) *Brooke Sanders, Reporter (1995-1998, now at WMC-TV) *Sean Hennessey, Reporter (1993, now at WCBS-TV) *Jerry Peterson, Meteorologist (1970's and 1980's, now at WRHI-AM/WRHM-FM, Rock Hill, SC) *Steve Litz, Reporter (1998-2006) *Brad Lacey, Co-Anchor/Update Desk, "Good Morning Carolina" anchor, (1970s, deceased 1984) *Jack Callaghan, Program Host, News Anchor, Station Manager and Editorial Director (1957-1995, deceased) *Bob Tyson, Weekend Weather (1980's) *David Hains, Reporter (1980's, now spokesman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte) *Tad Maguire, Meteorologist (1980's) *Amanda Nissen, Reporter (1990's) Other notable employees include editor John Bultmann (1988-1996) and producer Lee Baber (1992-1997). External links *WSOC-TV Homepage * * References WSOC-TV WSOC-TV Category:Cox Television Category:IBS Member Stations Category:Channel 9 TV stations in the United States Category:Television channels and stations established in 1957